I found it really interesting to read the stories of Jay-Z, an artist who’s provided a lot of the soundtrack to my life over the last 10 years and Blair who was in power in the UK for a lot of my professional life. Decoded by Jay-Z, and A Journey – by Tony Blair, are probably the last biographies you’d expect to find similarities in but in fact there are a lot. Both talk about the failings of conservatism in the 80s, with Jigga discussing it from the perspective of Reaganomics and crack cocaine in the US and Blair looking at the promise and failings of Thatcher in the UK.

As well both books discuss Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and both are critiques and comparisons of society. Jay-Z talks about Bill Clinton’s charm and his impact on the black youth of America, but while Clinton might have played the Sax and appeared on Arsenio Hall, Obama actually had listened to Jay-Z and other musicians and tried to understand where he and other like him came from. Blair talks about Clinton and his ability to offer advice and know what someone is going through both from experience and insight. It was really interesting to hear the perspective of such different individuals on the same characters.

Both were also touched by deaths that impacted their professional careers, Notorious B.I.G’s death shaped a lot of Jay-Z’s career and similarly the death of Princess Diana was a major event in Blair’s first term. BIG’s death influenced Jay-Z to take his music career seriously and focus and move away from the streets entirely, while he still had brushes with the law, he was influenced by the death of one of his few friends in the music industry and he used it for inspiration. For Blair the death of Diana shaped his relationship with the British public and the Royal Family.

Both also discuss the importance of authenticity. Jay looks at how fake rappers are seen right through by music listeners, how it’s better to use your real stories and not pretend to be something your not to have a sustainable career because being authentic makes the music more real. Blair looks at how the public can see through a policy/decision that is genuinely believed and one that is being promoted for popularity reasons.

I’m not the most knowledgeable on either hip hop or politics – but I do like to think I can hold my own – however, it’s easy to see how some politicians / artists have followed the path set by these two and some haven’t. I definitely think some of the most successful hip-hop artists, like Drake and Kanye West, are being authentic and others aren’t. At the same time Gordon Brown could have taken more pages out of Blair’s philosophy, which seems to be the path both Nick Clegg and David Cameron seemed to have taken in order to succeed in British Politics. I also believe the lessons in both books can extend to life in business and in general.

Let me explain. I hear of a new artist, let’s call her Lady Gaga Queen Mo Mo for interest sake. She get’s a couple of plays on MTV but I’m never home to watch her videos so I don’t really get to know Queen Momo ‘s songs. I don’t really listen to the radio, I prefer listening to on my PC and discovery through radio and video doesn’t happen as much as it used to for me personally. I discover music through services like Hype Machine and Spotify. Lucky for me Queen Momo has a lot of music on Hype Machine and on Spotify, I listen to a bunch of tracks and quickly become a fan. I check out her videos for her songs like Mobile Phone and her duet with Kelly Roland called Voice mail and I like her so much so that when she’s in town I buy tickets for me and the Bee for £50 each to see her when she’s in town. Not only that but I share music of her’s that I’m listening to on Twitter and Facebook and lead to three other people discovering her, one buys a CD, one goes to see her in concert and one downloads her album on iTunes.

So Queen Momo didn’t make a lot out of all the different streams or videos that I listened to or watched, but she made 100 quid directly from me when I went to see her in concert and a whole lot more from my sharing my interest in her. Just me, one customer. She also made more out of me as I then went on to buy her next album so the Bee could have it on her iPod. Here’s the thing though, would I have discovered her and become a fan had I not listened to her on Spotify and Hype Machine, maybe but probably not.

Okay so the “hypothetical example” is over and it’s actually pretty close to what the Independent’s written about Spotify and Lady Gaga. But, while it’s easy to track payments from one service and say it doesn’t contribute fairly as the Independent and various unions have done with the Lady Gaga example. What this doesn’t track is how many users discovered Lady Gaga or listened to Lady Gaga on Spotify or worse yet on file sharing sites in the UK and then went and saw her at the O2 or actually bought her CD. Studies have shown that users who use filesharing sites actually buy more music than people who don’t.

The point is that just because we can’t clearly attribute contribution from different channels doesn’t mean they don’t contribute positively to an artists overall income. File sharing and Spotify need to be treated as the new form of brand advertising in that they help artists (brands) build a reputation that then leads to sales. Shutting down or trying poorly scripted laws to protect the industries is as harmful as saying to artists radio or posters promoting your music is illegal.

I was driving in to work today and heard the Ting Tings “Shut up and let me go”, and it really resonated with my current professional situation. Then as I was reading about the Jets win over the Chargers (and celebrating a bit as this means my beloved Colts won’t be playing the Chargers who always seem to have their number) I read that Braylon Edwards playing Jay Z’s “On to the next one” as a team theme song.

I love music, I used to write a newsletter to friends with new songs to listen out for back in the day, When I’m not listening to podcasts I’m listening to music at work , at the gym, at home, and everywhere in between, and there are some times when a song inspires, pumps and gets people over the hump.

Right now songs that have me inspired (sorry I’m on a bit of a hip hop tip these days) are Successful (by Drake), Empire State of Mind (both the Jay-Z and Alicia Keys and the sans Jay-Z versions), Lily Allen’s F*ck you and of course the Ting Tings Shut up and Let me go.

Are there any songs that have you inspired these days? Feel free to send me tweet or a facebook message if you have song suggestions. I’ll put together a Spotify playlist and will post it via Twitter / Facebook if there’s a decent amount and mix of tracks.